Lily and the Duke (Regency Spinsters Alliance #1)

Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

“His Grace, the Duke of St. Albans,” the Truros’ butler announced before ushering Gabriel into a salon where the furnishings and fabrics were decorated primarily in a pale blue and white.

They were not colors that complemented the dark coloring and green gown of the youngest of the two ladies present, both having risen to their feet when he entered the room.

A glance in Lily’s direction showed him her hands were tightly clasped in front of her as she stood near the window but did not speak.

“How very kind it is of you to call upon us, Your Grace.” Lily’s mother, the second lady present, felt no such inhibition as she gushed her greeting at the same time as she curtseyed low.

Allowing Gabriel to realize that the décor in the room was a much kinder background to that lady’s fair coloring, blue eyes, and blue gown.

“I assume you have come here so that you might talk to Lily again regarding the surprise gift for your daughter’s birthday?” the countess prompted lightly.

Gabriel was rendered speechless by the realization that Lily must have chosen to use the very same excuse to her mother as he had to Chloe as a way of explaining away their private conversation together the previous evening.

A sign, perhaps?

That the two of them thought alike.

Although that affinity was not echoed in the alarm he now saw in Lily’s pleading gaze. No doubt a plea for him to endorse that explanation.

“It really was very naughty of you to compromise Lily that way at yesterday’s ball, simply so that you might discuss her assisting you in the choice of your daughter’s new gown,” the countess added coyly. “I am sure that many of the other guests will have thought—”

“I was not compromised, Mama,” Lily said as she stepped forward, no doubt in the hope of preventing her mother from adding to that embarrassing comment. “My acquaintance with the duke is only that of his being the father of one of my closest friends. Which, as Chloe is my peer, must mean the duke is old enough to be my father.”

“Not unless he was very precocious in his youth,” the countess reproved her daughter.

There was a flirtatious smile upon the older woman’s lips to accompany the rebuke. But Gabriel didn’t see any warmth evident in her hard blue eyes.

Gabriel had given an inner wince at hearing his age and, in turn, his eligibility, in Lily’s eyes, being dealt with so dismissively by the young woman he couldn’t stop thinking about and in whose presence his cock had once again hardened to an aching throb the minute he entered the room and saw her again.

Confirming, in case he had ever thought it might be otherwise, that his desire for Lily was as strong as ever.

“I believe I was a very precocious youth, ma’am,” he drawled in answer to the older woman. “But in order for me to be Lily’s father, the two of us would have needed to have been intimately acquainted twenty-one years ago, and I do not believe that to have been the case.”

The countess gave a coy and girlish giggle, much like the one Chloe, almost thirty years her junior, had given at the breakfast table this morning.

“No, I do not believe we were,” she confirmed. “I am, of course, slightly older than you, but I am sure I would have remembered if we had met when we were both young and single,” she added with a coquettish smile.

Gabriel maintained his outer expression of polite interest. But, inwardly, he was horrified at the thought that, even as a youth, he might ever have flirted with this obnoxious woman.

Not that he thought it was possible. He had married Mariah when he was eighteen, and Chloe had been born a year later. At the time, the countess already had three young children in the nursery, two boys and a girl, that baby girl being Lily. Which meant the countess was at least ten years his senior, and not the year or two she was now trying to imply.

Gabriel had met the countess several times twenty years ago, usually when he accompanied Mariah to a social event she had voiced a wish to attend. But even then, he had never particularly cared for the older woman’s obviously avaricious and emptyheaded behavior. A trait her daughter had not inherited, but which seemed to have intensified in the countess if her current flirtatious manner toward him was any indication.

Oh, the countess was still pretty enough. But those hard blue eyes and the lines of dissatisfaction visible beside her eyes and mouth revealed her true nature. As well as making her appear much older than the possible late forties Gabriel guessed to be her true age.

“As would I,” he now answered her politely before straightening. “I trust, as your daughter is to be of assistance to me in the choosing of Chloe’s new gown, that you and Truro will give me permission to also purchase a new gown for Lily—”

“No!”

“Oh, I do not think—”

“—as a thank-you for helping me,” Gabriel finished firmly over the top of Lily’s single-word protest and the countess’s hesitant refusal. “I assure you, I mean no impropriety by suggesting it.”

Lily realized, by the bizarre turn this conversation had now taken, that she had delayed far too long in recovering her wits after their butler had announced the Duke of St. Albans’s arrival, followed by his immediately entering the salon.

Long enough for her mother to behave as a simpering and flirtatious ninny. Behavior which did not suit the often acerbic and obviously middle-aged countess in the slightest.

Lily’s delay had also allowed Gabriel to take complete control of the conversation before making this outrageous request.

The Duke of St. Albans could not, most assuredly could not , buy her a new gown!

It would be scandalous for him to do so under any circumstances but even more so after they had been seen talking alone together the previous evening.

She could not allow—

“After all, I am old enough to be Lily’s father,” he now added with a pointed glance in Lily’s direction.

She gave him a glowering one back. “I will happily accompany you on a visit to the seamstress to help you choose the material for Chloe’s new birthday gown.” There was much Lily would like to say to this arrogant duke in private! “But purchasing a second gown for me as a thank-you for that assistance is unnecessary.”

“I disagree,” he stated haughtily.

“You—”

“I am afraid there is no more time for us to argue the point,” St. Albans told her after a glance at his pocket watch. “The seamstress is expecting us to arrive within the next fifteen minutes.”

He sounded so sincere, Lily realized, when in reality they both knew there was no reason for her to accompany him to a seamstress. Indeed, Lily very much doubted there was an appointment with a seamstress to attend.

Lily put aside questioning the real reason for his visit in favor of inwardly debating how odd it was they had both chosen the purchase of Chloe’s new gown as the explanation for their conversation the previous evening.

Even odder that Gabriel now wished to whisk her away from her home.

“You should have stated you were in a rush to leave when you arrived, St. Albans,” the countess snapped. “Lily must be accompanied by her maid, of course—”

“I drove here in my phaeton, I am afraid,” St. Albans dismissed unapologetically.

“A vehicle only seats two people comfortably.” The countess sounded scandalized.

“My point exactly, Countess.” The duke gave a slight bow of acknowledgment.

“Lily’s maid might travel up front with the driver, I suppose,” the older woman said distractedly.

“I prefer to drive myself, so I did not have it designed with a seat at the front.” St. Albans shot that suggestion down too.

“I suppose I could—”

“We would all be made very uncomfortable if you were to accompany us,” the duke warned.

“Yes, of course.” Lily’s mother looked deeply irritated by this turn of events. “I am not sure it is seemly for Lily to be alone in a carriage with you.”

“It is a very small and open carriage, my lady,” he reminded.

“I really cannot understand why you would have chosen to drive here today in such an unsuitable vehicle,” the countess bit out her irritation with the situation.

He shrugged. “It is a pleasant day, and I am sure Lily will be warm enough if she wears her winter cloak. Unless you think me an unsuitable chaperone for her?” he challenged.

Lily bit her bottom lip to stop herself from bursting out laughing at how neatly St. Albans had turned the tables on her mother.

Confirming for Lily that there was far more to the duke than he allowed the majority of the ton to see. Well, of course there was. He would not have the ear of the Prince Regent nor have avoided the matchmaking mothers for so many years if he were not ruthlessly intelligent.

Lily’s mother did not have either of those attributes.

“ You will act as chaperone?” the countess said uncertainly.

“But of course,” the duke confirmed. “I assure you that while she is in my company, I will not allow Lily to be accosted by any young gentleman, unsuitable or otherwise.”

“But what of yourself?”

“I believe we are all agreed that I am not a young gentleman.”

“This is a very strange situation,” the countess stated crossly. “But I suppose I must give my permission if you are not to be late for your appointment,” she added after St. Albans had given another impatient glance at his pocket watch.

Lily didn’t understand Gabriel’s choice of carriage either or why he should go to such lengths to have her accompany him.

But she was prepared to do the latter in order to have her questions answered.

She waited only long enough for them to be seated side by side in the phaeton and the duke had instructed the horses to pull away from Truro House before making her thoughts known. “What are you about, Your Grace?”

“Gabriel,” he corrected huskily. “And what I am ‘about’ is ensuring we are able to spend some time alone together. That I might have you to myself for the rest of the afternoon.” His voice warmed at the statement.

Lily gave him a wary glance. “Why would you wish to do that?”

“Would you like me to tell you or show you?”

Lily eyed him uncertainly. “I am afraid I do not understand… Oh!” she gasped when Gabriel reached out to place one of her gloved hands against the hot and very sizeable bulge inside his pantaloons. She swallowed. “You are aroused.” Her cheeks burned with that knowledge as she hastily removed her hand to tightly clasp her reticule.

“It is worse than that, I am afraid,” he confirmed ruefully. “I have been in this uncomfortable condition every time thoughts of you have intruded into my previously peaceful existence—which has been often—since the day I kissed you in my library.”

Which, Lily calculated, was nine days ago. “It does not sound a very pleasant state to be in.”

“It is not,” he confirmed grimly.

Lily frowned. “What do you expect me to do about it?”

“That is the subject of the conversation I should like us to have this afternoon.”

“Conversation?” she repeated skeptically.

“Initially, yes.”

“And once the initial conversation is over?”

He glanced at her, the heat evident in the pale blue eyes that were usually flinty with disapproval. “That will depend upon you.”

Lily’s cheeks warmed. “And where is this ‘initial conversation’ to take place?”

“I have arranged a private room for us, so that we might talk privately, with the lady in charge of a house of the demimonde. It is a far from perfect arrangement,” he acknowledged after Lily gave another shocked gasp. “But for the moment, it is the only place I can think of where we might be alone together and so avoid having a member of our respective families interrupt us. Is that arrangement acceptable to you?”

Lily knew the houses of the demimonde were where ladies who were not part of Society, despite some of them being well-born but usually outside of marriage, entertained the gentlemen of the ton . For Gabriel to be so well acquainted with the lady who ran one of those houses must mean that he had—still did?—visit one or possibly more of the ladies who resided there.

Lily was curious to see inside such a house, at the same time as she did not wish to meet or see any of the ladies Gabriel had intimate relations with. After all, he had told her that he had not remained celibate since his wife died.

“I have not visited such a house, or anyone inside one, for several years. My name alone was enough to secure our privacy.” Gabriel seemed to guess some of her thoughts. “I would not take you there now if I had any other choice. If we both agree to continue to explore our…friendship, I will find somewhere more suitable for us to meet in future.”

Lily wondered what that even meant.

Did she and Gabriel Lord have a future? And if so, what sort of future was it?

Lily’s curiosity was now such that she found she could not refuse him outright, as she knew she should. “And if I refuse to accompany you?”

He drew in a deep breath before slowly releasing it again. “Then the conversation will not take place, and we will simply go about our lives as if none of this had ever happened.”

Was that what Lily wanted?

To never know what Gabriel, the imposing Duke of St. Albans, wished to say to her?

What he wanted from her?

More importantly, what she might be willing to give him?